COMPLETED: Dirty Bacon's Farewell West Coast Tour

[The Roadie]

I see no Pinyon Squeeze side trip to show off the scene of the carnage.

Good.

I'll be out there Sunday for your first day, but work is a zoo so you'll just have to wait until midnight again if anything happens during the week. Just be self-sufficient.

[DirtyBacon04]

yup. I'll do just fine. At least I'll have some company. You know, someone to bounce my ideas off of. And by that I mean someone to hold the camera and remind me how dumb I am.

[djthumper]

someone in person that you still won't listen to.

[The Roadie]

Maybe I should give HER my cell number, and three sealed envelopes to hand Michael if he gets too aggressive with the trails.

1) Don't make me call the Roadie.

2) The Roadie says he has a lot of frequent flyer miles and I don't have to stay cooped up with you the entire trip.

3) THAT'S IT! I'm calling the Roadie.

[djthumper]

ROFLMAO!

[navigator]

double LOL

[The Roadie]

Getting the BaconMobile ready today for the tour. Michael's worn out and saggy 81's were retired to the dustbin. I advised him that NOBODY on ORTB would want them, even for free, and I had no use for 'em even as much of a packrat as I am. So we're installing his shiny new 89's, along with new poly bushings in the BDS spacers up front. They have a design problem with the washers being smaller than the polyurethane bushing diameter, and over time the poly flows around the washer, losing pressure. One of Michael's had even disintegrated and departed the vehicle. That left internal damage of a totally unexpected nature, and I had to drag out an older (9000 mile maybe) OEM front shock to replace the one that had its threads damaged by movement when the bushing disappeared. He has the pictures of this so he'll have to post them later, maybe at the end of the trip. Needless to say, it's important to regularly inspect your BDS bushings.

So the 89's were so impressive his bumper doesn't sag now when he jumps on it, and the front end is sitting at least 3" higher!


89's



MDB Fabrication bumper and skid plate



Happy owner



My God it's taller than he is now!



Oh, I *had* to ask why his bacon was "dirty". I know he LOVES bacon, but never knew he had (in an emergency) cooked some on top of his resonator! Ick.

[DirtyBacon04]

Jehehe! Loosley defining the word "emergency".

[The Roadie]

Shouldn't you be on the frickin' road by now, O tethered one?

[NC_IslandRunner]

Shouldn't you be on the frickin' road by now, O tethered one?

Just keep the RoadieMobile on high alert standby and fueled up!

[The Roadie]

Just got a text, he's about ten minutes away and I'll meet him on the highway. Next trail Oriflamme Canyon.

[Trail X]

...along with new poly bushings in the BDS spacers up front. They have a design problem with the washers being smaller than the polyurethane bushing diameter, and over time the poly flows around the washer, losing pressure. One of Michael's had even disintegrated and departed the vehicle. That left internal damage of a totally unexpected nature, and I had to drag out an older (9000 mile maybe) OEM front shock to replace the one that had its threads damaged by movement when the bushing disappeared. He has the pictures of this so he'll have to post them later, maybe at the end of the trip. Needless to say, it's important to regularly inspect your BDS bushings.

There is a metal sleeve inside the bushing that prevents the threads from getting buggered up. Sounds like that was left out. It also prevents the poly bushings from being over compressed, which would cause them to flow around the washers.

[The Roadie]

Nope. The sleeve was there, but partially worn away. One of the bushings had disappeared, and the other three were deteriorated and cold flowed around the washer. I've seen this on my BDS when I had them. Need bigger dished washers. When the bushing disappeared, and this install is under a year old and I did it, it allowed the strut to ride up and down in the BDS upper mount. The sleeve wore through and then the shock threads started acting as a file on the BDS mount itself. Michael has all the pics, but I have some of the parts. It made noise, but he didn't inspect it in time and suspect additional damage right away. BDS sent replacement bushings but I had to fab a sleeve.

His SPOT beacon tells me he chose a nice campsite about 50 yards away from one I've used 2-3 times over the years in Blair Valley. Daytime temps were in the low 80's there and the sun comes up late due to a hill. It was probably 38-40 degrees there last night.

We had a late start but a great afternoon wheeling in Oriflamme Canyon. His traveling companion Courtney has a great Drew Barrymore/Charlie's Angels kick-ass sense of humor. Except I swear she had Hello Kitty sunglasses or some similar kind of bling. And a lack of hiking boots, but that meant she packed light, and that's thinking ahead for sure. She'll find boots somewhere.

[The Roadie]

SPOT says he's camped just to the west of Hawk Canyon, my favorite spot. Carry on, Bacon!!!

[HARDTRAILZ]

Hope the trip goes smoothly!

[The Roadie]

SPOT says he's in the parking lot of Watson Chevrolet in Tuscon, AZ tonight. Something happened. Trying to find out what.

Ahhhh, they're OK. High wind came up overnight in the desert and drove them out. The motel is just next to the Chevy dealer. He thought that proximity would alarm me, and it did. Early April Fools!

[DirtyBacon04]

Heres the pics from the lack of bushing.

[DirtyBacon04]

carlsbad caverns was awesome! Too dark for pictures, obviously. But awesome none the less. Ft worth zoo tomorrow!

[DirtyBacon04]

Just got into N'Owlin's last night. Gonna hang here for the day, wake up early and straight shot it home tomorrow!

[DirtyBacon04]

Well, I finally made it home. The trip was long, 8 days. But well worth it. A total of 2995 miles from LA was put on my rig. Not a single flaw with the truck, either. I think the best fuel economy (tank avg) I got was 17.2mpg... sad to say it had a good lead over the rest. That was also when I managed to get 322mi on a tank, and that was out on fumes.
Carslbad Caverns was well worth the trip. Once we got to TX we hit the Ft Worth Zoo and because of the "rain", we pretty much had the park to ourselves.
Not a whole lot of pics of the offroading portion, but I know the philosophy of "if there arent pics it didnt happen". I'll upload what I do have later.